Spiritual verse about Saint Feodor Tiron and its Russian Siberian text

The spiritual poem about Feodor Tiron is relatively rare in the Russian folk tradition and has been insufficiently studied. Therefore, each of its newly discovered versions is of particular importance. The paper presents a new-found archival text of the oral verse about Feodor Tirone. This text is the narrative of the Siberian peasant Maxim Ivanovich Mordvin “O Fedore Tyrine.” The record was made by F. K. Zobnin on June 9, 1896, at the Holy Spring, 17 versts from Semipalatinsk. This is the first Siberian fixation of the religious verse on Feodor Tiron, which changes the idea of the existence geography of this plot. Comparing this archival text with its book-source, the apocryphal narrative of Saint Feodor Tiron’s dragon-slaying feat, as well as with the known oral versions of the verse about this saint, made it possible to establish that the Siberian text under study is characterized by the influence of the epic tradition and the presence of folktale and charm motifs. The revealed characteristics of the Siberian text are important for studying the forms of existence of the plot under consideration in the oral tradition as manifestations of the peculiarities of perception and adaptation of plots of Christian book writing in the system of folk representations.

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